‘This is the way we lose habitat’: Kitchener council approve industrial lot near natural area
Posted Nov 12, 2025 07:13:28 AM.
Last Updated Nov 12, 2025 10:11:01 AM.
Kitchener council approved plans to subdivide a lot that will allow developers to build an industrial park next door to the Huron Natural Area, regardless of pleas from passionate residents.
The lot, located at 1700 Strasbourg Rd. and McBrine Drive, is adjacent to the Huron Natural Area, and was purchased from the city officially back in 2022.
A petition circulating online prior to the council meeting on Monday was signed by 5,100 people, and a long list of delegates stood before councillors in defiance of the plans to build an industrial lot next door to the significant piece of green space.
“Huron Natural Area is a unique and vital conservation area that was once zoned for industrial use,” reads the petition on change.org. “Thanks to strong community advocacy, the official plans were changed, and it was re-zoned and preserved as the thriving natural area it is today. This shows that when we come together, we can protect ecosystems under threat.”
The Huron Natural Area spans more than 250 acres of protected wetland and forest, housing countless species of plants and animals, and has historical connections to Indigenous Peoples.
“Destroying what makes Kitchener unique, its connection to green space, isn’t growth at a reasonable pace, it’s growth at an irreversible cost,” said Florence Grunfelder, a delegate at Monday’s meeting. “We’re not asking to save trees, we’re asking the city to protect one of the last living systems that sustains Kitchener.”
Delegates implored the city to purchase the land back from the developers, but as Councillor Paul Singh explained, that would take away funding from other green projects around the municipality, and they would likely be buying back the land at a loss from what they originally sold it for.
If the developers weren’t applying for a subdivision of the lot, this issue wouldn’t have had to come before council, they would have only had to apply for a building permit. Council and city staff were able to put in a buffer zone between the industrial business park and the natural area, as well as a 30-metre-wide wildlife corridor to ease wildlife passage from the natural area to nearby wetlands.
However, residents were not pleased with the outcome of this saga.
“This is the way that we lose habitat,” said Alex Latta, a delegate at Monday’s meeting. “Very rarely do we lose habitat in one fell swoop. We lose habitat in a million tiny cuts.”
Councillors Debbie Chapman and Ayo Owodunni voted against staff’s recommendations, siding with the community, but the rest of council, who were present at Monday’s meeting, voted in favour.
